How to make pricing in a small metropolitan web studio?

Question

Startups

Share your experience, what is the best way to make a pricing strategy for a small web studio in the Capital? We make websites, we have pennies from the support of sites.
There are those who can reveal a couple of secrets? I constantly come across badly done projects for half a million or more. They knocked on other studios with a request to send us briefs, and the prices were given to us from 200 tyr + -, but at the same time, every client calling us, foaming at the mouth, claims that paying more than 50 thousand rubles for a site is unthinkable and he himself will find a master, which will quickly make it no worse for 20. And for support with the finalization of the functionality, for 15 tyr a month, it's just horror, horror, what kind of money ... So the question is how to be afloat and how to feel comfortable doing web development? We make very good products, we rarely miss deadlines, but the price remains prohibitively low.

Answer 1

He started his studio in 2005 and closed it in 2009. I started with sculpting templates for top CMS and developing template salads for a penny. There were 4 people on the staff, all students and we earned purely for ourselves + pumped knowledge and skills. Which for students oh how necessary.
Sorry, the question is not about that, but still, you need to start.
Somewhere in 2008, an understanding appeared that it is possible to implement truly expensive and high-quality projects under 3 conditions:
1. Connections that will help you go directly to the management of companies that need websites.
2. The presence in the portfolio of several serious and high-profile projects, it doesn’t matter if they are their own, made to friends or helped someone. The name still matters in business.
3. Having an excellent sales manager.
At one time, we started with the wrong thing, sculpting cheap sites and templates, we didn’t have much to show, and there was only 1 large regional project in the portfolio. As a result, we were treated precisely as an inexpensive and simple office with budget solutions. Serious organizations did not even consider our proposals, regardless of whether we covered the cost of competitors or not.
The studio should become a brand dealing with suitable, serious and interesting projects. Accordingly, marketing and PR should be aimed precisely at the seriousness of your work, high level and professionalism. You can grow your portfolio in this direction by helping to make partial solutions for significant players in the market for free. If there are no connections and the manager is broad.
There is also luck, friends / acquaintances bring. But most of them have been working and reworking their studios for years. In general, what am I talking about? There is no universal solution. Look at the top studios, in addition to the brief, what products they created at the start, whether they have something catchy in their work. Don't look at the money, look at the offer.
If you (your salesperson) can explain to the client that you will create a product that will be convenient, beautiful and functional, which is guaranteed to please the majority of customers and you will help train staff to work with this product, which in the future, if used correctly, will bring a lot of money to your customer . Here is a toga, he will find 200+ wooden ones.
Only you need to not only tell him about it, but also show your successful clients, for greater persuasiveness.

Answer 2

Decide who your customers are and what you can give them.
Sign the contract and TK.
Take an advance payment.
Document acceptance and delivery of work iteratively, for example, design - X-money, layout - Y-money, software part of Z-money, integration of M-money, support for N-money. With such a scheme, your risks are minimal and you can terminate the contract with minimal losses for yourself. The customer is also not offended, at each of the iterations he receives a finished result, with which he can do anything, up to contacting your competitors. Each iteration is discussed and approved together with the customer.
If an order of 50k is not profitable for you - politely say so, if you get foam at the mouth - end the conversation.
In principle, opening a bug tracker for a customer on a particular project can be a good point (but with the rights of no more than a bug reporter or observer), please note that the customer MUST NOT engage in micromanagement. If he has any comments/suggestions at the "fix-in-5-min" level - just do it, but if your business card site wants your Google - agree on one of:
- revision of iterations and changes in the TOR, without this do not continue work
- completion of the current and creation of a new iteration + TK
- completion of the iteration and the contract
Get a good sale))
And most importantly - do not do shit.
UPD added a sensible comment)) Remember, the state office is Pandora's box
Here littleguga